Finsbury and Hering Schuppener hired for Bayer's $62bn Monsanto bid

Finsbury and its WPP partner agency Hering Schuppener have been appointed to handle corporate comms around the proposed $62bn (£42.8bn) bid by German life sciences firm Bayer for American agrochemical giant Monsanto.

The sister agencies have been hired by Bayer to work on the M&A brief from Germany and London, alongside Brunswick, Bayer’s retained agency.

If concluded, the deal would be the biggest takeover by a German company in US history.

News of the bid was confirmed today by Bayer, which has nearly 120,000 staff globally, following a week of speculation.

The offer represents a 37 per cent premium on Monsanto’s $89.03 (£61.52) price per share the day before the offer. Bayer expects the deal to grow its annual revenue from €34.3bn (£26.5bn, $38.4bn) to €47.1bn (£36.4bn, $52.7bn).